


Kateus

by ThoseDaysThatWill



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Dallas Stars, M/M, Open Relationships, Polyamory, Texas Stars, a key means something, oblivious idiots, this turned into more of a character study than I intended
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:15:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26364778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThoseDaysThatWill/pseuds/ThoseDaysThatWill
Summary: He knew fully well he shouldn't be doing what he was thinking about doing. He was going to give him the very wrong impression. And he was going to give it to him for the wrong reason. He should have felt bad about it. He's a person, after all, not a pawn in his relationship games. He should have felt bad, he knew.But he didn't.
Relationships: Esa Lindell/Teuvo Teravainen, John Klingberg/Esa Lindell
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	Kateus

**Author's Note:**

> This is a sequel of sorts to [Kolmikko](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25415317). But it can also be read as a stand alone.
> 
> For Hannah, because she had such fun analyzing the first part. 💜

_June 2015_

His boyfriend won the Stanley Cup in his rookie season.

It's not that Esa wasn't proud of him. He was on his feet in the last seconds, his eyes were glued on Teuvo the whole time the team was celebrating. He watched him take his lap with the Cup and cheered as loud as he possibly could. He saw Teuvo glance up to the stands and he imagined he was looking for him in the sea of red jerseys. Esa's proudly said Teräväinen across the back, but it wasn't the only one like that. (His was the only one he saw, however, that was spelled correctly.) Esa knew once he was an NHLer in his own right, with his own team to support, he wouldn't be able to wear a Blackhawks jersey like this, so he relished the chance during this important game. He was so proud of him.

Esa watched Teuvo gravitate towards Kimmo. Every time one moved, the other moved just a little to be closer, like a magnet. He was sure that neither of them were aware of it, but Esa was. And he didn't have a word for how it made him feel, except that even in the middle of thousands of screaming fans, he felt like they were the only three people in the whole arena, and he was alone in the stands, and they were on the ice. Together. And they went into the locker room together, where Esa couldn't go. He waited in the hallways for a while, and wondered if he should go back to Teuvo's apartment. He could only imagine what he and Kimmo were up to in there.

He wandered around the halls outside the locker room for a while. There weren't many out there waiting, most of the family members knew to go home. But most of them had been allowed to be on the ice after the team celebrated. He could hear the yelling and singing from inside the room, but he couldn't pick out the one voice he wanted to hear. He tuned it out as soon as he could. He didn't like the feelings roiling in his stomach at the sounds. 

He wasn't trying to think about how he read that some punk kid that had played with him for Ässät for a handful of games had scored the overtime game winner (for _another_ team of course) in the Championship back home, and now Teuvo was winning the Cup as a rookie in the NHL. He was trying not to be jealous, but he didn't think he was succeeding. He tried to remind himself of the season he'd had. He'd piled up a list of awards including best defenseman in the whole league and his first Worlds team that didn't reference his age, and that was nothing to be ashamed of. It wasn't the Stanley Cup but he had a long list of accolades that told him his season was nearly as amazing. He had no reason to be feeling how he was feeling. But he _was_ feeling it.

He was just about to leave when he heard a loud voice from behind him, "Essi!" 

Only one person called him that anymore, he turned around with his best proud smile in place, "Congratulations!" 

Teuvo practically tackled him against the wall of the hallway. He smelled like sweat and champagne, two things that didn't combine well at all, he might have smelled like something else too but he pressed a kiss to Esa's lips and all of that was forgotten in an instant. Esa has never had the ability to keep focus with Teuvo's tongue in his mouth, and this moment was no exception. He wrapped his arms around him, turning them so he could pin Teuvo against the wall, a position he knew he would enjoy more. The kiss went on for so long, until they both knew that they had to back off or get naked. The hallway wasn't ideal for their preferred choice of the two. Esa only took half a step back, and Teuvo balled his fists in the sides of the jersey, "You look good with my name on you like that." 

Esa laughed, "If you finish with team stuff, and we can go back to your place, it'll be the only thing I'm wearing." 

Teuvo smiled brilliantly, "I'll be home as soon as I can. Thank you, for being here, for everything. I love you so much."

Esa could tell Teuvo was a little drunk, but it didn't sound any less sincere. It helped burn away a lot of the jealousy and bad feelings he had earlier. He was _proud_ of him. "I love you too, Teukka, I wouldn't be anywhere else." 

Teuvo's smile showed all his teeth, "I'll hurry," he promised before disappearing back into the locker room. 

Esa was sound asleep by the time Teuvo got home, wearing just his jersey as he'd promised. 

Teuvo didn't wake him right away. Instead he slipped into the shower, erasing all need to explain why he was so late.

_October 2015_

Esa looked at the key in his hand. He knew fully well he shouldn't be doing what he was thinking about doing. He was going to give him the very wrong impression. And he was going to give it to him for the wrong reason. He should have felt bad about it. He's a person, after all, not a pawn in his relationship games. He should have felt bad, he knew.

But he didn't. 

He had invited John over to 'christen' his new apartment. He would be spending the season with the Texas Stars, they'd already told him, so he rented a little apartment in the city and he had moved that morning. Boxes were everywhere, but he had made his bed, and that was really all he needed to have John over. He had bought snacks, but he doubted they'd get to them, maybe in the morning. He didn't invite him over to hang around and watch TV, and they both knew it. The cut of Esa's jeans and the cling of his t-shirt advertized that well enough. 

Esa answered the door and John handed him something that he didn't even have time to process before he was being kissed. Esa laughed, and stepped back, "At least come in before you start that." He looked down at his hands to realize he was holding a plant. He really expected John to bring alcohol or at least wine, not greenery. "You brought me..."

John plucked the plant from his hands and placed it on the counter near the door, "It's a jade plant. It brings luck into your home. And you don't need to water it much, like twice a month. I'll remind you. When you're in Dallas, you can just put it next to mine and I'll water them both." 

Esa laughed, "Subtle." John had been no-so-casually hinting that as soon as Esa was a _Dallas_ Star, he wanted him to move in with him. Esa hadn't agreed, but he hadn't said no either. He hadn't mentioned the offer to Teuvo, he knew full well what _he_ would say about it.

John flashed him a grin, "Subtle was last year, now you're _here_ and I'm sure you'll be called up soon, so I don't have time for hints." 

Esa shook his head. He enjoyed spending time with John, but moving in together was a step he wasn't sure he wanted to make, considering he wasn't his boyfriend, and wouldn't be. Well, not _exactly_. He wouldn't be his _primary_ boyfriend anyway, if he ever gave him the title at all. It was all so complicated and he had enough to deal with working on his English and playing well enough to get called up at all. Teuvo was starting his first full season in the NHL after winning the Cup last season, Esa wanted to spend as little time in the AHL as he possibly could.

John's shoulders dropped when Esa didn't agree right away. 

Esa felt bad, but he couldn't give him that promise yet, but he did have something he could give him, "I have something that might take that pout off your face." 

John gave him a long elevator look, "I know you do." He waggled his eyebrows, but couldn't help laughing. 

Esa rolled his eyes, "I might be changing my mind, you're too much of a dork." 

John stepped up to him, wrapping his arms around his waist, placing kisses along the side of his neck. Esa closed his eyes and tipped his head to the side, encouraging him. "You going to give it to me now?" John murmured into his skin, just the right amount of tease. 

"I want to give it to you." Esa shivered, "Take me to bed." 

"So, what's my present?" John asked, pulling Esa into his arms. Esa could do little more than flop over, half on top of him, and snuggle against his chest. He was exhausted, he'd been moving boxes all morning and being in bed with John was always a full workout. _Fantastic_ , but energetic to say the least. And he didn't even want to think about the fact he had practice tomorrow morning.

Esa gestured vaguely to the floor, "Find my pants." He expected John to complain about having to move, because he knew he sure would have, but instead he slipped out from under Esa and began a search for where they'd flug his pants in their dash to get naked as fast as possible. Eventually he found them bunched up in the hallway and brought them back to the bed. This wasn't how he planned it, but Esa couldn't say no after he found his pants for him. He fished through the pockets until he found what he was looking for. 

Groaning, he sat up and gestured that John should sit on the bed too. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to have some kind of speech to go along with it, but he didn't have one. He wondered how Teuvo had done it with Kimmo, but pushed that thought out of his mind as soon as he had it. He took John's hand and pressed the small object into his palm. 

John took a moment and then looked down at his hand, "A key?" He blinked a few times, "To here? You're giving me a key to your place?" 

Esa nodded and was about to say something when John tackled him down to the bed and kissed him deeply. "I love you," John murmured between kisses. Esa didn't say anything back, but that was fine because John wasn't giving him much chance to talk anyway. Esa had a feeling that was because he didn't want know if Esa wasn't going to return the declaration. Or maybe because he knew he wouldn't. 

_January 2016_

"We had plans and you had the nerve to go be amazing." Teuvo's tone was even but Esa could hear that he was barely holding in the laugh. That was how he had answered the phone before Esa could get a word in.

"You mean you _don't_ want to spend the All Star Break in Syracuse, New York?" Esa sounded the city's name out carefully. They had agreed the best idea the AHL ever had was to schedule their All Star Break at the same time as the NHL did, and had made big plans to go somewhere they could be alone together. The AHL had other ideas. 

Teuvo scoffed, "I _was_ sitting here trying to decide if I wanted to lay out in the sun on some quiet Caribbean island like we _planned_ or freeze my ass off in New York surrounded by a bunch of strangers."

Esa snickered, "So which did you pick?" 

"I bought a ticket right at the glass." 

Esa was sure that Teuvo could _hear_ his smile over the phone, "Yeah? Bigshot NHLer like you is going to come watch an AHL All Star Game?" 

"Of course I am, when my boyfriend is the _star_ of it." 

Esa scoffed that that, he wasn't the star by any stretch, but he did like when Teuvo bragged about him, "If you think that's impressive, wait until you hear what I have to tell you about the call I just got." 

He could hear Teuvo sit up suddenly, "You mean...?"

"My first game is the day after tomorrow. In LA." 

"Congratulations!" There was a pause and then Teuvo groaned, "I'm going to be in Nashville, but I'll tape it, and maybe I can get the replay at the hotel. And anyway you can call me after and tell me everything." He paused again, "Did you call _John_?" 

Esa laughed, "No, I didn't. I called you _first_." 

That settled Teuvo. "Good! Don't want to give him a chance to talk you into _driving_ out to California with him." He ignored Esa's scoff and kept talking, "Do you think you'll stay up? We play each other the beginning of February. Think you'll be up then?" 

Esa shrugged verbally, "They didn't say. It's an injury call up, so I guess it depends on how badly he's hurt. They said they'd send me back for the All Star Game, but if they needed me after, they'd call me back. So I guess it depends on Jordie Benn's knee." 

"I'll hire someone to take the other knee out for you," Teuvo deadpanned. One of Esa's favorite thing about Teuvo was the way he deliver a line like that so perfectly straight-faced that someone who didn't know him well couldn't tell if he was joking or not. It lead to a lot of "wait really?" from Jokerit teammates, with Esa snickering in the background. 

The next day was a whirlwind for Esa. He was told to meet the team in Los Angeles because they were in the middle of a west coast trip. Thankfully someone from the team arranged it all for him, and they had someone meet him at the airport and take him to the arena and even lead him directly to the locker room. They told him there was another Finn in the room, and they'd arranged for him to help him out. It was still overwhelming but less than he thought it would be.

Kari met him at the door and didn't have a chance to do more than welcome him to the team before a shout of his name interrupted his conversation, quieted the locker room, and got a number of eyes looking his way. He knew the voice right away and while he was looking forward to seeing him, he was enjoying the sound of Finnish a little more in the moment. 

He smiled and turned to face him, "Hei, John." That was all he could get out before John was all but tackling him in a hug and peppering him with questions in English faster than he had the brain power to translate after the long flight and all the anxiety of his first NHL game. "Mikä?"

John laughed, but kept his reply in English, "Sorry, I'm excited to see you. Come with me, I'll show you everything." 

Esa gave Kari an apologetic look and went off in the direction that John was pulling him. He introduced him around, a flurry of names he wasn't going to remember, but was sure he'd learn in time, and finally stopped in front of an empty stall, assuring him that they'd get him a nameplate as soon as they could, like he had any say in the matter. Esa put his bag down and tried to focus on setting up his gear rather than whatever John was going on about, until something caught his ear. "Vad?" He asked, hopefully prompting him to repeat himself in Swedish rather than English. 

Thankfully, this time John followed suit and switched to Swedish, "I said that you can room with me." 

"Don't you have a road roommate already?" Esa asked, continuing in the language. He caught someone, out of the corner of his eye, pick his head up and watch them intently. He didn't know the guy, but he had 'vested interest in the answer' written all over him. 

John brushed that off, "I do, but he won't mind." He turned around and looked right at the guy Esa had noticed, "Will you, Mats?" The guy's honest feelings were written on a flashing billboard over his head, but instead of admitting them, he shrugged as if he couldn't possibly care less and then went back to lacing up his skates. John turned back to Esa with a grin, "See? I've told Mattias all about you, he gets it." 

Esa wasn't sure if John was oblivious or purposefully ignoring what was blatantly obvious. But it wasn't his place to call him out on it, at least not until he knew more about this Mattias. John might have told him everything about Esa, but he hadn't told Esa anything about him. So he didn't say anything about it, just nodded, "I need to get ready for practice."

The game went by in a blur. Getting to take his first lap alone, he didn't look at the crowd and instead thought about Teuvo watching him, even if he knew it would be later, on tape. He did get a chance to play with John, but only a little. For the most part he was on the bottom pairing with a Swedish guy he didn't know, but it was easier to play in Swedish than English, if he couldn't speak Finnish, so he didn't really have any complaints. He managed his first shot on goal, and his first big hit in that first game. So overall it went well. Except that they lost. 

From the moment he got on the bus, through checking into the hotel, until almost sunrise, he was on the phone with Teuvo. John tried to get him to hang up, but Esa told him 'one more minute' enough times that he gave up. Teuvo kept asking questions about things that he had seen a hundred times himself but were new to Esa, and he loved Teuvo all the more for acting like it was just as exciting to him as it was to Esa. By the time they hung up, John was asleep and Esa didn't bother to wake him up. His alarm was going to go off in a few hours and he'd talk to him on the plane to make up for it.

Once they arrived in Dallas, John _insisted_ that Esa stay with him rather than in a hotel. He accepted that he wasn't moving in _yet_ , but for as long as he was up, he didn't see why he shouldn't stay with John. That he had spare bedrooms really didn't matter, because he directed Esa right to his bedroom the moment he was in the house. Not that Esa _minded_. It was nice to have a house rather than another hotel room, and John was all over him and that was a very nice distraction from the nerves of his first home game coming up the next day. 

The games were exciting and Esa knew he was already going to miss the NHL when he was sent back. But he had something to look forward to before the disappointment of not being called back up set in. He had his first All Star Game. John asked if he could come with him, since he wasn't doing anything All Star'ish _himself_ over the break. Esa turned him down, explaining honestly that Teuvo was going to be there and he didn't want to deal with both of them. John was disappointed, but understood, and they agreed to find a time they could meet up when their schedules allowed it. It was more of a bittersweet moment getting on the plane and kissing John goodbye in Dallas than he expected it to be.

Just like he said he would, Teuvo was front and center for the All Star Game, albeit hiding behind a hoodie and baseball cap. Esa tried to put on a good show for him. He didn't get to do the events he would have liked to in the Skills, but he _did_ score a goal in a breakaway challenge, so that was something, though scoring would never be his strong suit. There was no _defensive_ skill event for him to really show off. All the same Teuvo praised him all the way back to the hotel, and then was more than eager to show him how much he's missed him as soon as they were behind closed doors. 

The All Star game itself wasn't that great, he managed an assist at one point, but not knowing his partner or his goalie, he was scored around more times than he really wanted to be. "All Star games aren't meant for defensemen," Esa complained on his way back to the hotel after his team lost more games than they won. And not that anyone was counting, except Esa himself, but he would have come out of the day a solid minus. 

Teuvo waved that off, "The game doesn't matter, it's fixed for high scoring. It just matters that you _are_ an All Star. My boyfriend, the All Star." 

Esa couldn't help but smile at that, "You're such a dope." He tried to remind himself that it was just an _AHL_ All Star game, but Teuvo-- Stanley Cup winning, well into his second NHL season Teuvo-- was telling him that he was impressed with the fact that Esa had done something he hadn't. It made the fact he knew he wasn't getting called back up after the break feel a little better. 

Teuvo had suggested they spend an extra night in the hotel, but Esa managed to talk him into flying back to Texas with him, because he wanted to show him his apartment. The truth was he wanted memories of Teuvo in his apartment, in his _bed_ , for when he was missing him as the season dragged on. _The couch first,_ he thought as he unlocked the door, _then the bed_.

His thoughts were interrupted when he opened the door to find his couch _occupied_. "John?" 

Esa had stopped in the doorway, causing Teuvo to bump into him. He moved around Esa to see what caused the backup and did a double take himself. Teuvo looked back to Esa, "You gave _him_ a key?!" 

For a moment, Esa looked abashed, and then he remembered Kimmo fucking Timonen walking in on them in bed in Chicago and the way he acted like he _belonged_ in Teuvo's apartment, and he nodded firmly, "Yeah, he drives over when he has days off." 

John was watching them, watching Teuvo specifically. Esa wasn't sure if John had assumed Teuvo _would_ come back to Texas with him, or _wouldn't_ , and his face was giving nothing away. And honestly, he wasn't sure which one he _wanted_ John to have assumed. They were speaking Finnish and Esa knew John's grasp of the language wasn't firm enough to follow their conversation. As far as he knew, John's Finnish was limited to hockey and bedroom terms. 

Teuvo looked between them for a long moment, saying nothing, then finally looked up at Esa, a little grin on his lips, "Think he'd be into a threesome?"


End file.
